The Very Best of Abdullah Ibrahim
(compiled by Nigel Williamson) Music Club Records, US

The Best of Abdullah Ibrahim
(compiled by Rashid Vally) As-Shams Records, South Africa

Abdullah Ibrahim's recordings would seem to defy their being anthologized. Almost every record captures a complete moment and context and many are strikingly singular in their wholeness. To tag "Best of" to a collection, which by definition must pry away parts of those moments, seemingly does a disservice. Then there is the presumption incurred by qualifying any such endeavor as a 'best of', as if the compiler is in a special position to define gradation between better and best.

The biggest negative is due to the ways in which anthologies may work to deflect interest away from the very body of work they celebrate. Think of Bob Marley's LEGEND, the first anthology of his music. It has far outstripped the sales of his older recordings and done duty to stand in for important records which are far more essential.

Two new compilations of Abdullah Ibrahim's music join three preceding sets to further complicate the picture. However, even given the aforementioned reservations, the new discs embody strengths due to the closeness to the music of Rashid Vally, (who put together THE BEST OF ABDULLAH IBRAHIM for As-Shams) and Nigel Williamson, (who put together THE VERY BEST OF ABDULLAH IBRAHIM for Music Club) and the care and expertise the two applied to realize their individual views of 'the best'.

There is no duplication between the two records. Some constraints obviously had an effect on what part of the body of work each compiler could utilize. Vally largely focuses on recordings made in South Africa, whereas Williamson concerns himself with a subset of recordings made for Enja in Germany. Also, Williamson apparently used his own 'poetic' concept to further refine his approach to the riches of those Enja recordings.

In the final analysis, both records are quite different from each other, and are superior to the three workmanlike compilations that preceded them. Still, it's easier to engage them as idiosyncratic perspectives on what is favored by the compilers than value them as definitive, or even to hear each as optimal introductions to the wellspring of Ibrahim's fantastic music.

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Williamson's "Very Best of" confines itself to the recordings made for Mathias Winkelmann's Enja records between 1979 and 1997. (Left out of consideration, likely for contractual reasons, are the earlier Enja dates made for the partnership of Winckelmann and Horst Webber.) As Williamson writes in his notes to the record, "Although you will find great pain and sadness in this record, you will also find great hope and joy." He has set it up this way, of course! His concept is about this emotional continuum. Even confined by a strictly chronological sequence, Williamson puts together a dramatic, (mostly) somber, anthology.

The seriousness of his purpose and its sophisticated realization is preferable to a less thoughtful route-taking through this music. Yet, with a modicum of familiarity with this 'part of the body', it is clear this is much more an individual journey than an compilation of the 'best'. He's counterbalanced the infectuous and ingratiating selections with much that is intense and sober. He has drawn an evocative and rich picture of this period in Ibrahim's recordings as a result.

Quibbles: the overly explicit vocal "Cape Town" might have given way to a less obvious evocation of the city by the sea. Williamson's choice of "Zimbabwe" from the rare live date, "South Africa" doesn't jibe with this reviewer's estimation of the record. Why don't we get to hear -instead- the stirring medley featuring vocalist Johnny Classens?

On the other hand, Williamson makes solid choices. The crystalline solo dedicated to Ibrahim's daughter, "Tsidi" and the knotty and intense solo "For Monk" are very deserving. The prayer-full element is also served since the record starts with the fervent Islamic folkloricism of "Imam" and "Zikr". The anthologies most celebratory moments unfold midway in a sequence (featuring Ekaya) of "Chisa", "Toi-Toi" and "Calypso Minor".

In service to this desire to regard adequately the emotional depth and profundity of Ibrahim's music, Williamson is successful. This concept defeats the qualification of the title, which is not to say the record doesn't contain the 'very best' simply that it uses Williamson's choices to call out an emotionally full encounter.

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Rashid Vally has advantages over the distinguished Williamson. For one, he's Ibrahim's longtime South African producer and collaborator. Thus, Vally drops one important unreleased track from Ibrahim's most recent Tiptoe live date, CAPE TOWN REVISITED, and it makes the record worth the price of admission. (More about "Moza Mtwana" in a moment.)

There may be an explicit concept at work here; the notes by Dr. Aggrey Klaste do not say. But, there does seem to be a Cape Town-centric journey spiraling out of the grooves. Only two of the ten tracks feature the American configuration of Ekaya. All the rest were recorded in South Africa between 1971 and 1995 and feature Ibrahim's musical father Kippe Moketsi (on two tracks,) and longtime tenor stalwart Basil Coetzee, (on four tracks).

The centerpiece is the inarguably important original version of "Mannenberg". This most famous of all Ibrahim recordings would have to be on any "Best of" sourced from the entire 'back catalogue'. Vally has made lots of good choices with several dovetailing with sides this reviewer favors: the best example is the trio version of "Tintinyana" made in 1995 that is a masterful rendition among very strong competition of one of the composer's most sophisticated and intriguing songs.

The real find is a track inexplicably left off of the recent live CAPE TOWN REVISITED date. "Woza Mtwana" is an anthemic piece featuring incantory solos from the pianist and trumpeter Feya Faku. It strikes my ears as the very best from CAPE TOWN REVISITED.

Vally's authority is hugely respectable and this fine anthology is very well chosen. Williamson's sequencing is more integrated and feeds a more sobering concept, but Vally has created an altogether more immediately beguiling anthology.

Any person with a long-standing contact with this discography would have an interesting perspective on what is very best. To actually answer the demand to qualify tracks from Ibrahim's impossibly rich and generous recordings is a challenge both Williamson and Vally have risen to with their own individual and distinctive compilations. If Vally's is the better introduction, Williamson's is the more daring. Both records are worthy additions to Ibrahim's discography.

(If you read this as a devotee, what would your own 'very best' consist of? Feel free to let Mantra Modes know!)

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